Alongside westerns and gangster films, musicals are one of the most iconic types of Hollywood classicism. With their heyday spanning from the ‘30s to the ‘60s, these glamorous and colourful musical films are often less superficial than they might initially appear.

Mason Bates' weird and wonderful electronic symphonies

What do you mean, you haven’t heard about Mason Bates (yet)? He is one of the hottest names on the North-American music scene. Born in 1977, Bates is a symphonic and lyrical composer as well as an electro DJ (under the alias DJ Masonic) – two completely opposing genres which he takes great delight in mixing. Around half of his symphonic and lyrical work consists, in one way or another, of electronic sounds. The majority of these sounds are “every day sounds”, which are prerecorded and later put into a score. On the release date of his brilliant opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Qobuz interviewed this extraordinary person.

Paul Van Nevel, the ancient music craftsman

The saviour of lost causes from the Renaissance? That’s him! The insatiable digger, tirelessly tracking down savant polyphonies from the Early Middle Ages in European libraries? Him again! The recording of the first opera ever written by a woman (Francesca Caccini)? That’s him still, Paul Van Nevel, musicologist, cigar enthusiast, art historian, and mainly, music director of the Huelgas Ensemble since 1970. Let’s take an eager look at the Van-Nevelian music universe.